Chuck Versus the First Kill
|next= }} Chuck Versus the First Kill aired on April 13, 2009, the twentieth episode of the second season, and thirty-third overall. Synopsis Chuck strikes a deal with his ex-girlfriend Jill (Jordana Brewster) to have her released from prison if she cooperates with his search for his father. Meanwhile, Morgan attempts to sabotage Emmett's efficiency review. Plot Main Plot As the episode begins, the NSA and CIA have had no success in locating Chuck's father, Stephen. He angrily confronts Beckman during a status update about their failure to locate him. Chuck decides that he must take matters into his own hands and interrogate a Fulcrum agent, however none of those they captured have been willing to talk. Chuck gambles that he might be able to convince Jill, currently incarcerated, to help. She initially refuses, but Chuck makes an unauthorized deal to have her brought into witness protection if she cooperates. She recommends the team question her father's best friend, Uncle Bernie, (Ken Davitian) who recruited her into Fulcrum. She tells the team that most of the time he is well-protected and the only way to gain access to him without his bodyguards is at family gatherings. Chuck decides to manufacture one by going undercover with Jill on a visit to her home as if their relationship at Stanford had continued and they got engaged. While Chuck and Jill meet with Jill's family, Casey and Sarah monitor from the van outside. Bernie arrives and is immediately suspicious upon seeing Jill, whom he believes had been arrested and confronts them in private. Chuck offers him the same deal as Jill: Help him locate Stephen and in return they'll offer him witness protection. Bernie instead attempts to kill them and they flee through the house. Sarah and Casey, masquerading as Chuck's cousin and her boyfriend, respectively, arrive to back them up. Before they can reach Chuck, Bernie suffers a fatal heart attack and collapses. At Castle, Sarah tells Chuck that Jill will be returned to prison because of the failure of their mission. Chuck argues that they still need her help, but Sarah apologizes and tells him they don't have a choice. Jill returns the engagement ring the government provided her as part of the operation and says goodbye to Chuck, but as she's being led out Bernie's phone begins to ring. Chuck retrieves the phone from the body bag and answers, stalling the Fulcrum operative on the other line end enough for Sarah to track him to a business used as a recruiting front by Fulcrum. Sarah guards Jill in the van while Jill walks Chuck and Casey through infiltrating the Strength Leader Corporation facility, where they take a test to determine their eligibility for recruitment. However while taking the test Chuck and Casey are identified and separated. Chuck is taken to the Fulcrum agent in charge for interrogation, while Casey escapes. Jill and Sarah proceed into the building to rescue them, but Sarah is identified and pinned down in a heavy firefight. Casey ambushes and shoots the Fulcrum operatives holding Chuck, then rushes from the office to help Sarah after ordering Chuck to use the office computer to determine where Stephen is being taken. Jill tries to escape during the gunfight, where she overhears that Stephen is being taken to a facility called Black Rock. Meanwhile, the Fulcrum operative in charge,Bill Bergey, returns to where Chuck is working, rushes him and slips on broken glass and topples out the window after tripping on Chuck's foot when Chuck shields himself with "The Morgan." Chuck dives for him and catches his arm, but is now slipping out himself. Jill is making her escape when she hears Chuck call for help, and after a moment of hesitation returns and catches Chuck before he can be pulled out the window as well. The Fulcrum operative agrees to talk if Chuck helps him, but his sleeve rips free and the agent falls to his death. Jill tells Chuck that Stephen is being taken somewhere called Black Rock, but she doesn't know where that is. The name triggers a flash and Chuck identifies it as a location outside Barstow, CA. He then gives Jill back the ring they used earlier and tells her that the deal was a lie, and he won't let the government change him. He then lets her escape, seeing that she has redeemed herself. Afterwards, back at Castle, Beckman is furious that not only did they fail to rescue Stephen, but Jill is now on the loose. Casey wryly suggests putting Chuck in a bunker, and though he wasn't serious Beckman agrees and orders Sarah to tell Chuck they intercepted his father and brought him to Castle. Casey will then tranquilize him so he can be shipped back to Washington. Sarah objects to the setup but Beckman is tired of the potential liability of Chuck running around on his own and orders her to proceed. Sarah tells off Casey about how he didn't say anything, but goes to the Buy More to carry out her orders anyway. At first she tells Chuck the story given to her by Beckman, but after Chuck thanks her for always being there for him she warns him of the deception. He ditches his watch and the two flee. Buy More Emmett tells the team that he's up for an efficiency review and warns them not to give him any trouble. In response, Morgan does just that and organizes the rest of the employees in an effort to make Emmett look bad. However Emmett approaches him in the storage cage and strikes a deal: The employees want him gone and he wants out of the Burbank store. The efficiency review has the chance to satisfy both of their goals: If Morgan makes him look good Emmett will be able to leave. Morgan agrees, and has the team turned around talking up Emmett's contributions to the store. The efficiency review, lead by Mr. Mercer, is going well, but Emmett just needs a vote of support for Big Mike and asks Morgan to get it. Morgan plays on Mike's relationship with his mother to get him to confide in how he feels about Emmett, which he records and Emmett plays back for the efficiency expert. Unfortunately, Emmett reveals to Morgan he had been manipulating him from the start: The review was not of his own performance, but instead was of Big Mike's. Big Mike is demoted to a Green Shirt and Emmett is promoted to take his place. Trivia * When Chuck and Casey are carrying Uncle Bernie out of the house, they make it look like Bernie is still alive, just like the movie Weekend at Bernie's. * When Emmett betrays Big Mike, the biblical text of the choral music - "All flesh is like grass ... and the grass withers" - may be a commentary on Big Mike's downfall, but the requiem also foreshadows Emmett's impending death. *Big Mike's exchange with Morgan is a riff on Michael Corleone's conversation with his brother Fredo at the New Year's Party in Havana in The Godfather Part II. *When Chuck meets Jill in prison, she is in Room 101. In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Room 101 is the place where your worst fears come to life. Quotes Wally Roberts: And you are? Sarah: I'm, uh, Chuck's cousin, Sarah. And this is my boyfriend John. Wally Roberts: Talk about beauty and the beast, huh? You must be loaded. [Casey feigns a laugh] Music *Around The Bend by The Astroids Galaxy Tour *Shopping For Blood by Franz Ferdinand *We're Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister *Hungry Like A Wolf by Duran Duran *Here by Mackintosh Braun *(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry by Darlene Love *The Earth Has Lost Its Hold by Calhoun * "Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras" from the 2nd movement of "A German Requiem" by Johannes Brahms (Emmett betrays Big Mike) Category:Season 2 Television Series Episodes